GAO RFID Meat Processing Plant Inventory Management System

Description

What It Does

The GAO Meat Processing Inventory Management System employs RFID technology to revolutionize the inventory management of meat processing equipment. Inventory management is managed efficiently by an employee holding a handheld device such as a tablet, pistol grip handheld computer, PDA, or an EDA and walking through the plant, improving accuracy and efficiency drastically. As compared to barcode systems, each item does not need to be scanned manually.

Challenges/Issues

Most of the issues with traditional inventory management systems in the meat processing industry are barcode-based or human errors. Usually, a barcode number is printed on a sticker and placed on each item. If the sticker gets damaged or dirty, then the barcode scanner can misread or even fail to acknowledge the read. Apart from this, barcodes require a clear line of sight and close distance to be read. A staff member with a handheld scanner needs to visually identify each item, scan it in a close range, and repeat the task for each item in the inventory. Due to these reasons, the process is highly error-prone, inefficient, and labor-intensive.

How It Works

To address these issues, GAO has developed the GAO Meat Processing Inventory Management System based on the latest UHF Gen 2 RFID technology. It consists of:

1. One or multiple handheld PCs, such as tablet PCs, PDAs (personal digital assistant), EDAs (enterprise digital assistant) or pistol grip intelligent terminals
2. An RFID object tag for each Meat Processing machinery
3. An RFID location tag for each shelf or area where the item is located

The handheld PC is preinstalled with both an RFID reader and the GAO Meat Processing Inventory Management Software. It also typically has built-in Wi-Fi capability to communicate with a server via a local Wi-Fi network for data transferring, an optional barcode scanner, and a high-definition camera.

An RFID object tag is attached to each Meat Processing item for its identification. A suitable tag can be chosen from GAO’s wide selection of tags to fit the specific properties of the Meat Processing equipment like tumblers, saws, tenderizers, mincers, among others. There are RFID location tags for all surface types, including metal and plastic. An employee can then walk through the aisles of the meat processing plant with the handheld PC in their hand, automatically taking the inventory by walking within range of the meat processing equipment. The RFID reader has a further range than a conventional barcode scanner, automatically tracking the location and inventory of each item by merely walking within the range. Therefore, no manual scanning of each item is needed. This dramatically improves accuracy and efficiency over conventional methods and reduces damage as the meat processing equipment does not need to be handled by the employee to scan them.

Features

• No system installation is required since tags are simply placed on meat processing equipment and shelves or something indicating location, and each handheld PC has been preinstalled with an RFID reader and GAO Meat Processing Inventory Management Software.
• GAO Meat Processing Inventory Management System utilizes RFID technology, which improves productivity and accuracy. It has addressed the issues of the barcode-based conventional systems such as a line of sight requirement and reading errors due to barcode damage.
• Suitable for meat processing equipment of all types
• Suitable for any meat processing plant of any size

Technical Specifications

• One or multiple handheld PCs from GAO, which will be preinstalled with a UHF Gen 2 RFID reader and GAO Meat Processing Inventory Management Software
• A UHF RFID object tag for each Meat Processing equipment
• UHF RFID location tags indicating which shelf and Meat Processing equipment is located

Applications

GAO Meat Processing Inventory Management System can be effectively used to manage inventories of all kinds of meat processing equipment like grinders, mincers, cutting machines, tenderizers, and vacuum tumblers